Vladimir Fedorovich Luginin. 1834–1911

The book is devoted to the life and scientific biography of Vladimir Fedorovich Luginin. Recent findings in more than 20 Russian and foreign archives have added a lot to the well-known image of Luginin, a prominent scientist, philanthropist, founder of the Russian cooperative movement. The new documents testify to the deep involvement of Luginin, his brother and father in preparing and implementing the Russian peasant reform and participating in zemstvo construction in his native Vetluga district of the Kostroma province. Based on the analysis of the archival sources the book provides a chronological account of the main character’s merits in developing the cooperative movement at home, in creating Russia's first loan and savings partnership, in disseminating this experience throughout the country in the capacity of a member of the Committee on Rural Loan and Savings Industrial partnerships and its St. Petersburg branch.

The book provides a detailed analysis of Luginin’s scientific and pedagogical activities, its directions, motives and priorities and shows the man’s mediating role in the process of rapprochement between Russian and Western European science and culture. For the first time Luginin is presented in his close family environment and in cooperation with his numerous Russian and foreign colleagues, friends and pupils.

Luginin’s diverse activities, we hope, will expand the potential readership of his biography. Its material will be of interest to social historians and historians of science, economists, sociologists, cooperators, school and university teachers of natural sciences, chemists, librarians and museum workers.